Minor/Junior Hockey League Megathread 18-19

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > Minor/Junior Hockey League Megathread 18-19

DJExile: Jun 28, 2007

College thread is here!

Do you find the NHL stale and boring? Need some theme nights, cheap tickets, shoe-string broadcast budgets, no-name players, and loving incredible one-off themed jerseys? WELL CONGRATS MOTHER FUCKER WELCOME TO THE MINOR LEAGUES!

Also I'm just gonna quote most of Jagged Jim's rad OP from the last thread because god drat it is so much better than I could hope to do

Jagged Jim posted:

National Women's Hockey League

Website: http://www.nwhl.zone/
YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFwEggLD91IcxpZvGqltJvw

The NWHL is the first professional women�s hockey league in North America to pay its players. The inaugural season began October 11, 2015 with the Founding Four: Boston Pride, Buffalo Beauts, Connecticut Whale and New York Riveters. The Boston Pride became the first team in NWHL history to raise the Isobel Cup on March 12, 2016.

American Hockey League

http://www.theahl.com
The American Hockey League (AHL) is the top-flight minor league in the US and Canada. Over 80% of the players currently in the NHL played in this league at one point. Sufficed to say, this is the league to watch if you want to see your team's future players.

With the NHL expanding to 31 teams it means that the expansion ~~Golden Knights~~ St. Louis Blues will have to make do without a direct AHL affiliate for a season or two.

Relocations
-Binghamton Senators fled north of the border to become the Belleville Senators (OTT).
-Binghamton then did a cross state raid to make the Albany Devils into the Binghamton Devils (NJ).
-The Habs got tired of sending their minor leaguers to the rear end end of nowhere and moved the St. John's IceCaps to Laval, Quebec to become the Laval Rocket (MTL).

Affiliation Changes
-The Chicago Wolves changed affiliates from St Louis to Las Vegas. St. Louis can still send players to the Wolves since otherwise they won't have an AHL affiliate, but who knows how that will turn out.

Division Alignment

ECHL

http://www.echl.com/

If the AHL is AAA Hockey, the ECHL would be AA. Few players who wind up in the ECHL have much chance of ever making the NHL, and those that do usually are backups and 4th liners. The ECHL used to stand for East Coast Hockey League until 2003, when it absorbed the remaining teams from the West Coast Hockey League. Prior to the 2014-15 season, it also absorbed the remaining Central Hockey League teams. As a result, the ECHL spans from Alaska to South Florida. The ECHL, however, is known for having the greatest logo in professional hockey.

Canadian Hockey League

The main prospect development league in North America, the CHL is composed of three leagues. Each league holds its own NHL-style playoffs with the winners of each league along with the host city playing in the prestigious Memorial Cup tournament. The CHL is considered a "major junior" league and is sometimes referred to this way.

Players in the CHL are aged 16-20 (with an occasional 15 year old permitted in the OHL via "exceptional player status"). 20 year olds are considered "overage" and limited to 3 per team while teams may not play more than 4 15 or 16 year olds. Age for CHL purposes is based on the calendar year so for the 2013-2014 season, a 20 year old is any player born in 1993. This contrasts with the NHL where draft eligibility is determined by age on September 15.

Each CHL league has an annual draft of bantam-aged players within their regions and the leagues hold a combined import draft for players from outside North America who may wish to play in the CHL. Teams are limited to 2 import players.

WHL (Western Hockey League)
The WHL includes 22 teams in four Canadian provinces and two American states. The WHL holds the CHL rights to players from the four western provinces, all three territories, the American Pacific Northwest and other designated states west of the Mississippi River. The winner of the WHL playoffs is awarded the Ed Chynoweth Cup.

Official website: http://www.whl.ca/

OHL (Ontario Hockey League)
The OHL is composed of 20 teams, located in the Canadian province of Ontario and the American states of Michigan and Pennsylvania. The winner of the OHL playoffs is awarded the J. Ross Robertson Cup.

Official website: http://www.ontariohockeyleague.com/

QMJHL (Ligue de hockey junior majeur du Qu�bec)
Also called "the Q", the QMJHL is the only CHL league with no American teams (although there used to be one in Maine). The QMJHL has 18 teams, based in Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. The league has CHL rights to players from these provinces as well as Newfoundland and New England. The winner of the QMJHL playoffs is awarded the President's Cup. The league is known for high scores and a style of hockey which prioritises offense. Pity the goalies.

Official website: http://theqmjhl.ca/

The Memorial Cup
Each member league in the CHL holds its own separate playoffs. The three champions of these playoffs and the host city advance to play for the Memorial Cup. The host city is normally rotated between member leagues, but since this year is the 100th anniversary of the Memorial Cup the host city was selected from a pool of every member league instead of just one. This means that the Memorial Cup will be played in Regina, Saskatchewan instead of in a QMJHL city like normal.

The 4 teams in the Memorial Cup play each other once in a round robin format before advancing to the knockout phase of the tournament. The team with the best record receiving a bye to the championship game with the second and third place team having a play in game to determine the other team in the championship. The fourth place team is eliminated, but if they are tied with the third place team they will play a tiebreaker game.

Kontinental Hockey League

Russia is pretty into hockey. They've had aspirations to create a pan-Europe league to rival the NHL, but for now they have the KHL. Originating from the Russian Superleague, the league has expanded beyond Russia with teams in Belarus, Croatia, Czech Republic, Latvia, Kazakhstan, Slovakia, Ukraine and Finland. Prominent ex-NHLers include Alexander Radulov (CKSA Moscow) and Ilya Kovalchuk (SKA Saint Petersburg). Some Russian prospects take their time moving over to North America from the KHL.

Changes for 2016-17: Medve�čak Zagreb and Metallurg Novokuznetsk are out, whoever they are. Maybe other stuff too, I dunno. Russia is far away.

Official website: http://en.khl.ru/

FAQ
Sounds cool! How can I watch?
The best way is in person. Minor hockey is cheap and you can probably get decent seats for $10-$15. Check your local team's Twitter or Facebook for additional promotions (e.g. my local WHL team has a limited number of seats on sale on Mondays for $5).

But if you don't live near a team, or want to keep up with their away games, the best way to keep up for free is radio. Yes, that's still a thing. Most if not all of these teams have all their games broadcast by a local radio station, and radio is almost universally available to stream (legally!) for free online with no restrictions on location. Sure, this means you can't see the games to judge your team's precious prospects with your own eyes, but radio commentating is very thorough and hearing the players' names to know who has been involved in the play gives a pretty good idea of who has played well. Hockey Webcasts is a fairly comprehensive source to stream radio for almost every North American team from the NHL, AHL, ECHL, WHL, OHL, and QMJHL. If your team is missing, check the official league page or team website.

The AHL, WHL, OHL and QMJHL all have sites like NHL Gamecenter Live where you can watch the games online. However, they are expensive and the quality tends to be pretty bad, with the video often just being a low-res feed of whatever goes up on the jumbotron. On occasion, games are televised locally in which case you might be able to find them on your favourite illegal streaming site. All KHL games are streamed through onhockey.ru, but they happen in the middle of the (North American) night and are in Russian, so that may or may not be your thing.

Why can't my team's hot prospect play in the AHL if he doesn't make the NHL team?
You can blame the NHL/CHL Agreement, a.k.a. why I didn't get to see Seth Jones play in Milwaukee.

Somewhere around 60% of all NHL players played in the CHL, making it the main pool from which the NHL drafts its players. To prevent NHL teams from taking their best players and immediately sending them to one of their minor league affiliates, the NHL and CHL made an agreement. If a player was drafted from a CHL team, they have to either be 20 years old by Dec. 31 (i.e. overage) or have played four years in the CHL in order to play in the AHL. Otherwise, the player must be sent back to the CHL team that has their rights. Note that this only applies to players drafted from the CHL, not players drafted from European leagues or the NCAA, even if they go on to play in the CHL after the draft.

If anything is wrong, blame Hockles.

Some of these affiliations at the AHL and ECHL level have changed. Colorado Eagles move up from the ECHL to the AHL, and expansion team Newfoundland ~~Growlers~~ Goodboys have been added to the ECHL ranks.

Come talk about your rad minor/junior league teams here!

If anything is wrong, blame Hockles!

# ? Aug 28, 2018 16:15

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# ? Apr 19, 2024 02:56

PotatoJudge: May 22, 2004; Tell me about the rabbits, George

The Quad City Mallards of the ECHL folded. A different ownership group grabbed an SPHL franchise (the old Lousiana IceGators). They have an awesome logo:

The SPHL stays at 10 teams with the Mississippi RiverKings going dark this year (forever).

# ? Aug 29, 2018 20:24

DJExile: Jun 28, 2007

PotatoJudge posted:

The Quad City Mallards of the ECHL folded. A different ownership group grabbed an SPHL franchise (the old Lousiana IceGators). They have an awesome logo:

The SPHL stays at 10 teams with the Mississippi RiverKings going dark this year (forever).

oh my god i love it

# ? Aug 29, 2018 20:35

DJExile: Jun 28, 2007

Toledo Walleye theme jerseys for the year:

Black Panther, We Can't Say It Out Loud Because Warner Brothers' Lawyers Are loving Terrifying But It's Totally Harry Potter, Blackfish jerseys while Fort Wayne wears Night's Watch, All-star weekend, Ninja Turtles.

:coolfish:

# ? Aug 30, 2018 15:24

Troy Queef: Jan 12, 2013

DJExile posted:

Toledo Walleye theme jerseys for the year:

Black Panther, We Can't Say It Out Loud Because Warner Brothers' Lawyers Are loving Terrifying But It's Totally Harry Potter, Blackfish jerseys while Fort Wayne wears Night's Watch, All-star weekend, Ninja Turtles.

You guys better do the Goaldiggers night again

# ? Aug 30, 2018 16:16

DJExile: Jun 28, 2007

Troy Queef posted:

You guys better do the Goaldiggers night again

godddddd i know, those were so fuckin' rad

# ? Aug 30, 2018 17:37

Hand Knit: Oct 24, 2005; Beer Loses more than a game Sunday ...
We lost our Captain, our Teammate, our Friend Kelly Calabro...
Rest in Peace my friend you will be greatly missed..

Go(?) Fronts

# ? Aug 30, 2018 21:43

Jagged Jim: Sep 26, 2013; I... I can only look though the window...

Go Chiefs Go!

# ? Sep 1, 2018 10:41

fits: Jan 1, 2008; Love Always,
The Captain

quote:

Prominent ex-NHLers include Alexander Radulov (CKSA Moscow) and Ilya Kovalchuk (SKA Saint Petersburg). Some Russian prospects take their time moving over to North America from the KHL.

awkward

# ? Sep 1, 2018 16:38

yellowcar: Feb 14, 2010

I love minor league snarl�

# ? Sep 1, 2018 22:40

Stretch Marx: Apr 29, 2008; I'm ok with this.

After a few years of being good, the Sea Dogs are now in the "need to draft better people asap" part of the cycle. Luckily the team seems really good at drafting so no actual worries.

# ? Sep 1, 2018 23:14

DJExile: Jun 28, 2007

yellowcar posted:

I love minor league snarl™

# ? Sep 1, 2018 23:38

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

Go admirals!

# ? Sep 2, 2018 00:09

Hockles: Dec 25, 2007; Resident of ~~Camp Blood~~
Crystal Lake

I'm back for another year.

# ? Sep 2, 2018 18:45

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

Hockles posted:

I'm back for another year.

# ? Sep 2, 2018 18:51

Hockles: Dec 25, 2007; Resident of ~~Camp Blood~~
Crystal Lake

Oh, there was an actual new development that came alongside with the promotion of Colorado to the AHL. A new realignment.

https://theahl.com/2018-19-ahl-alignment

e: schedules are still as unbalanced as forever.

# ? Sep 2, 2018 18:55

DJExile: Jun 28, 2007

Hell yeah sup hockles

# ? Sep 2, 2018 19:15

ElwoodCuse: Jan 11, 2004; we're puttin' the band back together

I know the AHL wants to cut travel costs but it does kinda blow that the Penguins are basically always playing the Bears or Phantoms

# ? Sep 2, 2018 21:08

Hockles: Dec 25, 2007; Resident of ~~Camp Blood~~
Crystal Lake

ElwoodCuse posted:

I know the AHL wants to cut travel costs but it does kinda blow that the Penguins are basically always playing the Bears or Phantoms

Now you guys get us for like the first time ever.

# ? Sep 2, 2018 22:49

DJExile: Jun 28, 2007

ECHL preseason schedule has been released

# ? Sep 4, 2018 19:42

DJExile: Jun 28, 2007

https://twitter.com/SwampShop/status/1042918840676622336

# ? Sep 21, 2018 16:07

Jagged Jim: Sep 26, 2013; I... I can only look though the window...

WHL season opener is tonight! :toot:

Too bad our home opener isn't until next week, though. Oh well.

# ? Sep 22, 2018 07:32

DariusLikewise: Oct 4, 2008; You wore that on Halloween?

I went to the Brandon Wheat Kings home opener last night, they won 2-1 and it was almost a sellout!

# ? Sep 22, 2018 16:39

CBJSprague24: Dec 5, 2010; another game at nationwide arena. everybody keeps asking me if they can fuck the cannon. buddy, they don't even let me fuck it

Let us go the Cleveland Monsters.

Meanwhile, in the OHL, Erie is disemboweling Flint tonight:
https://twitter.com/markscheig/status/1043671318099648512

# ? Sep 23, 2018 02:23

Doctor Butts: May 21, 2002

DJExile posted:

If anything is wrong, blame Hockles!

The divisional alignment for The AHL is wrong.

# ? Sep 23, 2018 14:14

DJExile: Jun 28, 2007

HOCKLEEESSSSS :doom:

# ? Sep 23, 2018 14:21

Infidel Castro: Jun 8, 2010; Again and again
Your face reminds me of a bleak future
Despite the absence of hope
I give you this sacrifice

I love how nobody has bothered to remove my reference to Seth Jones at the end of the OP after, what, 4 years now?

# ? Sep 23, 2018 16:42

Hockles: Dec 25, 2007; Resident of ~~Camp Blood~~
Crystal Lake

I posted that update already. Jerks.

# ? Sep 23, 2018 16:44

MachoManRanDCabbaj: Sep 23, 2018

Another thing is off about the OP - the NWHL is no longer a 4 team league, they added the Minnesota Whitecaps - who were kind of like a barnstorming team leftover from the collapse of the WWHL (which was down to literally two teams when it died). I'm really hoping the NWHL and CWHL can pull things off, as it's really quite good hockey - you just need to get a team and get into it.

# ? Sep 24, 2018 17:07

Jagged Jim: Sep 26, 2013; I... I can only look though the window...

I just got back from the Chief's home opener, we won, Ty Smith is back, life is good. :krakentoot:

# ? Sep 30, 2018 08:26

DJExile: Jun 28, 2007

The ECHL will experiment with video replay in 4 arenas this year

quote:

At the referee�s discretion, the following circumstances are eligible for instant replay utilizing overhead cameras on each of the goal nets:

Puck crossing the goal line
Puck entering the net using a distinct kicking motion
Puck directed, batted or thrown into the net by an attacking player
Puck entering the net before the goal frame is dislodged from moorings

# ? Oct 4, 2018 20:16

fits: Jan 1, 2008; Love Always,
The Captain

https://twitter.com/MitchLBrown/status/1048551301385261056

# ? Oct 6, 2018 16:15

fits: Jan 1, 2008; Love Always,
The Captain

https://twitter.com/ChocHockey/status/1048716211155062784

# ? Oct 7, 2018 05:18

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

# ? Oct 7, 2018 06:08

ElwoodCuse: Jan 11, 2004; we're puttin' the band back together

In what universe does the ECHL have money for video replay, the players have to like, wash their own jerseys and stuff

Stockton and Ontario scored 8 goals in 13 minutes tonight. Box score includes such familiar faces as Peter Budaj, Matt Moulson, Brett Sutter, and Emerson Etem (Poopem)

https://theahl.com/stats/game-summary/1018357

# ? Oct 7, 2018 07:06

DJExile: Jun 28, 2007

ElwoodCuse posted:

In what universe does the ECHL have money for video replay, the players have to like, wash their own jerseys and stuff

It's not exactly an ultra detailed system in this instance. it's just the camera directly above the goal looking straight down.

# ? Oct 7, 2018 13:17

Furnaceface: Oct 21, 2004

Hand Knit posted:

Go(?) Fronts

Our teams are going to be bad this year. :smith:

Go Colts anyway.

# ? Oct 7, 2018 17:49

Jagged Jim: Sep 26, 2013; I... I can only look though the window...

Chiefs... might be good this year. Also LA why did you keep JAD up if you're just going to scratch him? Send him back to us if you're not going to play him! :argh:

# ? Oct 7, 2018 19:52

DJExile: Jun 28, 2007

ECHL opening rosters are out

# ? Oct 11, 2018 20:05

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# ? Apr 19, 2024 02:56

DJExile: Jun 28, 2007

https://twitter.com/MonroeBlade/status/1050499719749885953?s=19

I LOVE OUR FAT ADULT SONS

# ? Oct 12, 2018 00:03

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